


Between the Star Dust.

by yubiwamonogatari



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-17
Updated: 2016-05-17
Packaged: 2018-06-09 01:23:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6883306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yubiwamonogatari/pseuds/yubiwamonogatari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fusion is like everything and nothing, all at once.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Between the Star Dust.

**Author's Note:**

> I need to start this with an apology because I have not seen any Steven Universe, which is exactly why this fic was commissioned. I have no idea what Steven Universe is about, but apparently it's not this. Thank you [Krabbydon](http://www.krabbydon.tumblr.com) for commissioning me, and for the challenge of writing a fic from a franchise I know nothing about, save what's on my tumblr dashboard!
> 
> Enjoy!

 

 

 

They talk about fusion as if it's the be-all and end-all of love. As if to be whole, you have to be different souls soldered together. A thousand fragments somehow clinging together, striving to be complete. It works for some of them, for gems like Ruby and Sapphire. Garnet is stable, after all, even if they have fights. She separates and joins in an endless cycle. Her blood sings with love, and she is made stronger by it.

Some are not so lucky. He's seen gems torn apart, seen them ground down into the shimmering dust feeding the ravenous burning stars in the night sky. He's seen supernovae collapse and galaxies ignite, all because of unstable fusions. They're beautiful in their own way, but they're an ending. A cosmic showdown, the scattered remains of what was too much to contain.

There are others that exist as single gems. He's seen Amethyst and Pearl fuse and tear apart, still alive. Still whole. They don't need to fuse to other gems to be complete, even if they don't like to admit it. Every gem is searching to be part of something bigger.

Steven thinks it's because they're sentient things, heaved up from the rock of the star they come from. They're shards of a planetary whole, and it makes them ache to be surrounded again. To be crushed and pulled and pushed and held so tight they cannot move.

He's older now. The world is less full of pretty jewels, and more full of dull rocks, polished by suffering and loss. Every gem has a story to tell about fusion, about what it gave them. What it took from them.

“What does it feel like, fusing?” he asks.

“Like being made whole again,” Garnet replies, easily.

Steven shakes his head.

“What does it _really_ feel like?”

Garnet sits silent for a long moment, her chin resting on her hands as she stares out over the indigo desert before them. Three heavy moons hang low in the sky, a storm roving across the surface of one like an ever-watchful eye, and the stars glimmer faintly between strips of forlorn clouds.

“It feels... like being crushed,” she says, stretching her hand out and clenching her fingers tight before spreading them again, “and exhaling. All at once. But quickly.”

“Does it hurt?” Steven asks, his voice soft. As if speaking too loud will break the spell of an honest answer.

“I don't know. I think so. It's complicated.”

Garnet rests her chin on her knuckles again, watching as the largest moon begins its reversal. Something about the gravitational pull of the other moons moving makes it stop and then start to spin backwards. Stephen's never been there, but he's heard the wind blows so hard and so fast every surface is like polished marble. There were annual roller-skate competitions every summer, when the biting wind is a little warmer.

“You don't remember?”

“No. Ruby and Sapphire are two different gems, and I am a third. There's a moment when all three of us exist in this tiny, tiny space, and then...” Garnet trails off.

Steven waits quietly, letting her gather her thoughts. There's a faint smell of burning in the air, but it's not unusual, and certainly not strong enough to warrant them moving just yet. Amethyst and Pearl should be back soon. They've been gone almost a week already, and as the days slip from one to the next, the knot of worry in Steven's stomach tightens. It's tough out there for anyone. If Pearl and Amethyst don't make it back...

“And then you're whole. Remade. You expand.”

“What about the seconds where you're not Sapphire or Ruby or Garnet? What are you, then?”

A frown touches Garnet's lips and she links her fingers together.

“I'm... I--...”

From behind them a siren wails and then cuts off suddenly. The smell of smoke thickens.

“It's okay,” Steven says, putting his arm around Garnet's shoulder. “Sorry. Weird questions, huh? I guess I'll never quite understand it.”

Garnet looks at him and tilts her head.

“You fuse. I've seen you fuse. Is it different?”

“I don't know,” Steven replies honestly, standing up and brushing the sand from his trousers. “I never remember it, but I-- … I get dreams, sometimes.”

It's too late to stay out any longer, waiting for Amethyst and Pearl to come back. If they come back at all. They lost Lion a year ago, and the pain of his loss still stings.

“Dreams?” Garnet repeats, standing up and stretching. The siren begins to wail again, louder and more desperately.

They turn back towards the entrance of their shelter, sunk deep into the desert.

“I guess nightmares. It's like I'm just my mind rattling around my skull, but someone is shaking me harder and harder until I start to fly apart, all these little pieces flung into this blinding light. There's this pressure and it's like something's tearing me apart and trying to squeeze me into a grain of sand and I just want everything to go dark and quiet again. I feel like the dust between galaxies, you know? The stuff stars are made from. It's terrifying. I don't think I'm meant to feel like that.”

Steven glances over his shoulder, taking one last look for Amethyst and Pearl as the acrid stench of smoke thickens and turns sickly sweet around the edges. He opens the hatch, dropping down and waiting for Garnet to follow, flicking on his torch as she closes and locks the heavy, metal slab above them.

“Next time I fuse, I'll think about it more. I'll try and come up with a better answer,” she shrugs, following him down the winding corridors and tunnels deep into the earth.

“Don't worry about it,” he smiles. “It's not like I'm going to be fusing again, not with everything that's happened. I'll leave that stuff for the proper gems.”

Her hand on his shoulder is warm and comforting as he punches in the secret code to their hideout, and steps inside the little hollow they call home.

It's not like there's anyone left for him to fuse with, after all.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> [Someone reported my fics on Ao3 - This is why!](http://yubiwamonogatari.tumblr.com/post/148307664796/so-someone-reported-me-on-ao3)
> 
> You can find me [on Tumblr!](http://yubiwamonogatari.tumblr.com)


End file.
